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Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife
When her husband was murdered on the orders of Chicago mobster Frank Nitti, Georgette Winkeler--wife of one of Al Capone's "American Boys"--set out to expose the Chicago Syndicate. After an attempt to publish her story was squelched by the mob, she offered it to the FBI in the mistaken belief that they had the authority to strike at the racketeers who had killed her husband Gus. Discovered 60 years later in FBI files, the manuscript describes the couple's life on the run, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Gus was one of the shooters), and other headline crimes of that period. Prepared for publication by mob expert William J. Helmer, Al Capone and His American Boys is a compelling contemporary account of the heyday of Chicago crime by a woman who found herself married to the mob.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published March 15, 2011
6 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
William J. Helmer
16 books6 followersPERSONAL INFORMATION
Family: Born March 6, 1936, in Iowa City, IA to Albert Joseph and Myrtle (Curl) Helmer; He left Iowa City before age one, grew up in the Mexican border town of Pharr, TX, and prefers to celebrate March 6 as one hundred years to the day after the Fall of the Alamo.) He married Pat Thompson, September, 1958 (divorced, 1966); married Jean Brockman (a free-lance illustrator), August 6, 1971; Children: Marc & Jan; Granddaughter Jessie.
Education: University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Journalism, 1959, MA in History, 1968.
Politics: "Formerly an FDR Democrat turned fanatically moderate libertarian."
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1953-61; became Radioman First Class.
Memberships: Amateur Radio operator W5AJR (retired), Discordian Society, Bavarian Illuminati. Founding Member of The John Dillinger Died for You Society.
Residence: Currently lives in Boerne, TX.
CAREER
Editor of the following:The Texas Caver, The Texas Ranger, Escapade, Aramco World, True West,1955-1995
University of Texas at Austin: Supervisor of Student Magazines, 1965-66
National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence: Staff Member, Washington, DC, 1968-69
Playboy (in Chicago): Senior Editor, 1969-1995.
Harper's, Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, other magazines, 1955-present:Contributor of articles (including humor, under pseudonym Horace Naismith)
Family: Born March 6, 1936, in Iowa City, IA to Albert Joseph and Myrtle (Curl) Helmer; He left Iowa City before age one, grew up in the Mexican border town of Pharr, TX, and prefers to celebrate March 6 as one hundred years to the day after the Fall of the Alamo.) He married Pat Thompson, September, 1958 (divorced, 1966); married Jean Brockman (a free-lance illustrator), August 6, 1971; Children: Marc & Jan; Granddaughter Jessie.
Education: University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Journalism, 1959, MA in History, 1968.
Politics: "Formerly an FDR Democrat turned fanatically moderate libertarian."
Military/Wartime Service: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1953-61; became Radioman First Class.
Memberships: Amateur Radio operator W5AJR (retired), Discordian Society, Bavarian Illuminati. Founding Member of The John Dillinger Died for You Society.
Residence: Currently lives in Boerne, TX.
CAREER
Editor of the following:The Texas Caver, The Texas Ranger, Escapade, Aramco World, True West,1955-1995
University of Texas at Austin: Supervisor of Student Magazines, 1965-66
National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence: Staff Member, Washington, DC, 1968-69
Playboy (in Chicago): Senior Editor, 1969-1995.
Harper's, Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, other magazines, 1955-present:Contributor of articles (including humor, under pseudonym Horace Naismith)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 15, 2016
It’s a little strange to think of this as Bill Helmer’s book. (For what it’s worth, I’ve met Bill a couple times and we have a handful of mutual friends.) The truth is, most of this book is written by Georgette Winkeler (a name I’ve always spelled “Winkler”) the widow of Gus Winkler, a Chicago gangster I spent a fair bit of time looking into several years ago.
The simple fact of Georgette’s text is hard to believe. There were more “tell-all” gangster narratives in the 1930s than popular memory recognized; it wasn’t until later gangster histories created a context for things like Dutch Schultz’s lawyer Dixie Davis’s memoirs that later scholars could begin to tie them into a more consistent narrative of organized crime. Still, the idea that a gangster widow would write a book-length account of her life – and that she would name names – is a real surprise. I hadn’t heard of the account until Helmer brought it out, and I’ve done my share of digging.
So, the existence of Georgette’s account makes this worthwhile without anything else. Hearing even her choice of words goes a long way toward showing a forgotten side of life in that moment. If Georgette has a thesis (at least a thesis beyond presenting herself as largely innocent and Gus as the victim of the Italians under Frank Nitti) it’s that the Capone “syndicate” (her word) was a fairly big tent. She charges that Gus got into the syndicate as part of Capone’s team of “American boys,” tough bank-robber sorts whom he found use for in running his gangster operations.
She sees Gus’s death as part of a pattern in which the “dagoes” – fueled in part by ethnic loyalty – got rid of the “American boys.” (Jack “Three Fingers” White was killed around the same time as Gus, for instance.) It’s an intriguing thesis: the end of Prohibition meant a tightening of the guard, and it also meant a more distinctly ethnic makeup. I suspect we’d see something similar post-World War II when the Syndicate took out, among others, Dago Mangano; at a glance I’d guess the “Italian” syndicate became more Sicilian than it had been. (That’s just a guess, though; many non-Italians remained important then: Jack Guzik, Gus Alex, and Murray Humphreys among others.)
Anyway, as interesting as that is, it’s also hard not to get distracted during the long, self-serving accounts. I really enjoyed only a couple of chapters here – particularly the ones around the killing of Ted Newberry – but I pressed on through the whole books for the occasional nugget of information or striking expression.
Bill Helmer is responsible for the apparatus that surrounds this. He inserts a handful of chapters between Georgette’s in order to clarify her story and give more historical background to it. My concern there is that while Helmer knows this material very, very well, he’s also more a reporter/raconteur than a historian. He gives as fact his own favorite theories – such as that Fred Burke was a chief gunman at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre or that Fred Goetz killed Frankie Yale. I’ll credit those as plausible, but they aren’t settled. Helmer has done substantial research to prove them elsewhere, but it’s troubling to find them asserted as fact in a setting like this.
Bottom line: this is a remarkable document, but it doesn’t open all that much new ground. It’s amazing that, almost 90 years later, we’re still finding relevant new material about Al Capone’s world, but this is not at all the place to start with that history.
The simple fact of Georgette’s text is hard to believe. There were more “tell-all” gangster narratives in the 1930s than popular memory recognized; it wasn’t until later gangster histories created a context for things like Dutch Schultz’s lawyer Dixie Davis’s memoirs that later scholars could begin to tie them into a more consistent narrative of organized crime. Still, the idea that a gangster widow would write a book-length account of her life – and that she would name names – is a real surprise. I hadn’t heard of the account until Helmer brought it out, and I’ve done my share of digging.
So, the existence of Georgette’s account makes this worthwhile without anything else. Hearing even her choice of words goes a long way toward showing a forgotten side of life in that moment. If Georgette has a thesis (at least a thesis beyond presenting herself as largely innocent and Gus as the victim of the Italians under Frank Nitti) it’s that the Capone “syndicate” (her word) was a fairly big tent. She charges that Gus got into the syndicate as part of Capone’s team of “American boys,” tough bank-robber sorts whom he found use for in running his gangster operations.
She sees Gus’s death as part of a pattern in which the “dagoes” – fueled in part by ethnic loyalty – got rid of the “American boys.” (Jack “Three Fingers” White was killed around the same time as Gus, for instance.) It’s an intriguing thesis: the end of Prohibition meant a tightening of the guard, and it also meant a more distinctly ethnic makeup. I suspect we’d see something similar post-World War II when the Syndicate took out, among others, Dago Mangano; at a glance I’d guess the “Italian” syndicate became more Sicilian than it had been. (That’s just a guess, though; many non-Italians remained important then: Jack Guzik, Gus Alex, and Murray Humphreys among others.)
Anyway, as interesting as that is, it’s also hard not to get distracted during the long, self-serving accounts. I really enjoyed only a couple of chapters here – particularly the ones around the killing of Ted Newberry – but I pressed on through the whole books for the occasional nugget of information or striking expression.
Bill Helmer is responsible for the apparatus that surrounds this. He inserts a handful of chapters between Georgette’s in order to clarify her story and give more historical background to it. My concern there is that while Helmer knows this material very, very well, he’s also more a reporter/raconteur than a historian. He gives as fact his own favorite theories – such as that Fred Burke was a chief gunman at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre or that Fred Goetz killed Frankie Yale. I’ll credit those as plausible, but they aren’t settled. Helmer has done substantial research to prove them elsewhere, but it’s troubling to find them asserted as fact in a setting like this.
Bottom line: this is a remarkable document, but it doesn’t open all that much new ground. It’s amazing that, almost 90 years later, we’re still finding relevant new material about Al Capone’s world, but this is not at all the place to start with that history.
August 10, 2013
Much of Al Capone and his American Boys is drawn from a manuscript written in the 1930s by Georgette Winkeler, wife of Capone-affiliated gangster Gus Winkeler. Nearly released back then, the publisher decided it was “too hot” to publish and buried it.
A copy of the manuscript turned up six decades later in FBI files. Gangland historian William J. Helmer prepared the manuscript for publication and added a substantial amount of clarification and supporting documentation. The result is a detailed insider's history of Capone’s specialassignment American Boys gang - Winkeler, Bob Carey, Ray Nugent, Fred Burke, Fred Goetz and Byron Bolton.
Georgette's memoirs are captivating, revealing and well written. However, they are understandably not objective. She wrote from her biased memory. She obviously applied whitewash to her husband's participation in some of the most dramatic crimes of the Gangster Era.
Helmer does not interfere in Georgette's minor whitewashing. However, he does step in with bracketed comments when Georgette strays significantly from the truth or omits critical data. Helmer also spreads throughout the book a collection of his own informative features, providing the details of important events and personalities.
A minor error crept into the lengthy biographical notes section at the end of the book. Helmer stated that Capone underling Philip D’Andrea was the brother of former priest and early Chicago Mafia boss Anthony D’Andrea. Philip, in fact, was a nephew of Anthony D’Andrea (Philip was the son of Anthony's brother Luigi). Anthony D’Andrea did have a brother Philip, but he was much older than the Philip who worked for Capone.
Al Capone and his American Boys is highly recommended for those interested in an insider's view of the major criminal events of the Gangster Era.
A copy of the manuscript turned up six decades later in FBI files. Gangland historian William J. Helmer prepared the manuscript for publication and added a substantial amount of clarification and supporting documentation. The result is a detailed insider's history of Capone’s specialassignment American Boys gang - Winkeler, Bob Carey, Ray Nugent, Fred Burke, Fred Goetz and Byron Bolton.
Georgette's memoirs are captivating, revealing and well written. However, they are understandably not objective. She wrote from her biased memory. She obviously applied whitewash to her husband's participation in some of the most dramatic crimes of the Gangster Era.
Helmer does not interfere in Georgette's minor whitewashing. However, he does step in with bracketed comments when Georgette strays significantly from the truth or omits critical data. Helmer also spreads throughout the book a collection of his own informative features, providing the details of important events and personalities.
A minor error crept into the lengthy biographical notes section at the end of the book. Helmer stated that Capone underling Philip D’Andrea was the brother of former priest and early Chicago Mafia boss Anthony D’Andrea. Philip, in fact, was a nephew of Anthony D’Andrea (Philip was the son of Anthony's brother Luigi). Anthony D’Andrea did have a brother Philip, but he was much older than the Philip who worked for Capone.
Al Capone and his American Boys is highly recommended for those interested in an insider's view of the major criminal events of the Gangster Era.
December 8, 2014
When Georgette Winkeler wrote her memoirs of the life she had lived and tried to get them published in 1934, she was turned away. The material was deemed "too hot" by publishers and no one wanted to touch them. She ended up turning her manuscript over to the FBI and little happened as a result but Georgette Winkeler had lost her husband Gus, remarried and turned her back to the gangster life she watched transform so many before her. While some believe this was her attempt to get fame or to capitalize on this, I honestly believe it was a way for her to cleanse her soul so to speak. Her new husband was a very religious man and she had taken up to religion herself and it seems logical that she was confessing her past so she could move past it. But this document did nothing more than collect dust in the archives of the FBI where it sat since 1934 until it was retrieved somewhat by accident. But written in the words of a woman who lived a life of drama, her words emulate such. As a historian, we can read about the events and the time lines but we rarely get a good look into the relationships of people. This book captures just that essence that seems to be missing from every other history book! The dynamics of the relationships between the different men are very apparent from the view of a woman who was on the inside, someone very in tune with emotional observations. I loved reading this book knowing that each character was a real human being, completely flawed but real. No one could have written a better character!
April 3, 2022
This is a really cool historical find! A nonfiction telling of the story of a life of a Chicago (and St. Louis) mobster written by his wife, then misplaced for 60 years. I really l for what she went through. And for Gus, trying to get out of that life.
The additional information added to the old manuscript is really helpful in understanding the story, too. The whole book is a compelling read.
The prejudice against Italians and other nationalities is a little grating at times. Just be forewarned.
Plus, Gus Winkeler is a relative of mine, so that’s pretty cool.
The additional information added to the old manuscript is really helpful in understanding the story, too. The whole book is a compelling read.
The prejudice against Italians and other nationalities is a little grating at times. Just be forewarned.
Plus, Gus Winkeler is a relative of mine, so that’s pretty cool.
March 30, 2018
An interesting book if you’re into the old Gangsters. Not much of the book is about Capone, but his American boys and other associates. The gangster bios at the end of the book was an interesting read.
April 13, 2018
I used a lot of what's in here as research for a major portion of my own book The Great Heist. Has a lot of great behind the scenes information about the mob.
November 5, 2019
I found this book to be very 'dry' not a very enticing yarn at all.
March 2, 2024
This memoir was phenomenal. Gus Winkeler is a distant relative of mine so it was great to learn some insight on him and the St. Louis gangstersas well as Al Capone.
December 22, 2013
I am finding this an interesting read as a follow up to the fictional book Dollface (which I loved). It is very factual and interesting to see the actual headlines and differing perspectives. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much had I not read Dollface first. It made it easier to connect and place the many, many players of the underworld of that time.
However, I lost interest in this about half way through. I found the multiple tellings of the same instances at different times in the book to be haphazard and a bit redundant. I would give this a 2.5
However, I lost interest in this about half way through. I found the multiple tellings of the same instances at different times in the book to be haphazard and a bit redundant. I would give this a 2.5
July 1, 2016
I found this memoir rather dull. So many gangsters and too many aliases made it a struggle to keep everyone straight. Not enough was described about any of them to make them interesting. It's mostly just dry facts and speculations.
Kristi Burns narration is satisfactory. I only heard a couple of mispronounced words. I think only someone particularly interested in this topic would find this book worthwhile.
NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for this unbiased review.
Kristi Burns narration is satisfactory. I only heard a couple of mispronounced words. I think only someone particularly interested in this topic would find this book worthwhile.
NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for this unbiased review.
December 22, 2015
Interesting for the inside look of the life of a 1930s Chicago mobster though the title makes it sound like it will be a lot more about Al Capone than it is. It's really a tell-all "confession" of Gus Winkeler's wife, given to the FBI after the mob prevented its publication. She, of course, attempts to paint both her husband and herself in the best possible light while also pointing fingers to the mob members who killed her husband.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews